The present invention relates to a two way envelope that after its first mailing may be used to return an enclosure, payment or the like. Such envelopes when used for direct mail solicitation may be preaddressed and posted for return mail or may include a window through which a preaddressed insert can be displayed. In other cases, the return envelope is merely provided to promote a prompt remittance by the first addressee.
Many envelope styles have been developed for mailing bills, offers, statements or the like to potential clients or customers with features to facilitate the return mailing. In some instances a second envelope is provided inside the first envelope which may be used by the addressee to return a payment or a response to a request or offer. In other instances single blanks of envelope material have been designed, cut and folded to provide both the first and return envelopes. Such prior art envelopes have for the most part been successful, however many styles have encountered a variety of significant difficulties in manufacture and use. Some of the prior art envelopes of the latter class cannot be successfully manufactured on modern, high speed, automatic envelope machines. Also, many are not usable on automatic inserting equipment, nor can they be opened with the use of automatic opening devices or used with OCR (Optical Character Reader) scanning devices. Additionally, some of the known two way envelopes require difficult and tedious manipulation to convert the first envelope into its return form. Finally many of the known two way envelopes fail to provide within a single blank a completely enclosed pocket for the first envelope and a separate, completely enclosed pocket for the return envelope.
In contrast to the above, the envelope construction of the present invention solves many if not all of the problems inherent with the prior art styles of single blank two way envelopes, and does so with a unique construction that is suitable for all potential users.